Skip to main content

Obama personable, poised

In his Primary Source blog at boston.com, James Pindell writes of today's New Hampshire visit by not-yet-candidate Barack Obama, "The atmosphere around Obama accounted for more of the discussion than what he actually said."

At the Portsmouth book signing, we were happy to have a chance to hear the man speak, but didn't find a lot to get charged up about. Well, it is a book tour, after all.

In fact, even though Obama "received two standing ovations before he uttered a public word in New Hampshire" (Pindell again), the rounds of applause for bookstore owner Tom Holbrook and Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand were equally spirited and lengthy.

Health care, energy, how our politicians behave, and Iraq were Obama's first four topics after his introductory remarks, referring to them as the reasons that the 2006 elections meant so much to so many.

He attracted 750 people to Portsmouth and 1,500 more to Manchester, turnouts that ought to hint to him that a portion of our populace is ready "to renew, to reinvigorate" its dedication to our nation's governance.

We must wait a month to learn whether Obama will rally us as a candidate for President.

UPDATE 2006-12-12: Missed the analysis on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the 11th, but got the audio via PBS (attached below till I gain the courage to get Drupal's audio module up and running). Wish they had video; we might have been on national television!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

1AQD / NU1AQD / W1AQD QSL Collection

My great uncle Louis C. Brown, "Brownie" in Maine, was active in amateur radio between 1927 and 1936. I have 250+ of his QSLs from United States stations and additional cards from DX hams. I will gladly provide digital images of individual QSLs for relatives or others who wish to have them for their research or records. Calls are listed by call area then suffix W1ABG (2), W1ACR, NU1AHY, W1AIC, W1ALO (3), W1AMG, W1AMQ, 1AOF, W1AOT, W1APR, 1AQL, W1AQW, W1ART, W1ARW, 1AUR, W1AUR, 1AVJ, NU1BBM, W1BEF, W1BEO, W1BEU, W1BFT, W1BFZ, W1BIG, W1BIR, NU1BJC, W1BNG, 1BNL, W1BOK, W1CE, W1CIB, W1CPF, W1CQL, W1CQR, W1CTF, W1IVZ, W1KL, W1LQ, W1NS, W1QH (2), W1UR, 1VE, W1VM, W1VS, W1WV, NQ2AC, W2ACD, U2AET, W2AGI, W2AHU, W2AVO, 2AVP, W2BAK, W2BDX, NU2BHB, W2BVT, W2BXA, 2PO, NU2RK, 2WI, W3ADX, NU3AEL, NU3AEL, W3AER, W3AIA, W3AWS, 3ARC, NU3ASC, NU3BNS, W3EZR, NU3QE, NU3TR, 3AWQ, NU4ACC, NU4ADL, W4AFM, NU4AFP, 4AGE, W4AII, W4AJL, NU4CS, W4CWH, 4DS, W4HC, 4HH, W4KA, W4LY, W4MF, W4NE, W4TN, W4

UNC Bld-201 NDT server

via UNC TCP/Web100 Network Diagnostic Tool v5.2.1e running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 375.97Kb/s running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 3.50Mb/s running 10s outbound test (client to server) . . . . . 375.97Kb/s running 10s inbound test (server to client) . . . . . . 3.74Mb/s For the record, abridged results of two tests of our Comcast throughput on a Monday evening, thanks to the University of North Carolina.

The Elusive Subja Seed

Why am I so captivated by the idea of drinking tasteless, slippery, crunchy-kerneled seeds? Because subja seeds sound like fun. I first learned of them by browsing The Indian Spice Kitchen , where Monisha Bharadwaj describes them, but Osimum basilicum seeds seem impossible to find. I made a special trip to Seattle's Uwajimaya to track them down, but came up empty. I stopped at Market Spice at Pike Street, where they hadn't heard of them (but they suggested another shop down the street). I went into Souk, where the gentleman understood what I was looking for only after I described it; he knew the seeds by a different name, which he couldn't remember, and said his sister gets them at a shop (the name not in his memory) on Roosevelt Avenue. But I was out of time in the city and couldn't follow up. (But before I took more than a few steps out Souk's door, the proprietor called me back in, because he had asked his arriving friend what those seeds were called. Tukmaria,